If you have already done some research on the subject, you have necessarily already come across one of these terms: high potential, zebra, gifted, early, and I pass by! The first time my psychologist explained what it was, she was just talking about High Intellectual Potential. Only by doing my research on my side did I encounter these other words. So what's the difference? What's the difference? Why all these expressions?
In this article, I will try to answer these questions.
High potential adult
High potential adult (or adult HP, adult zebra) is an adult with high abilities. You can find this High potential in two forms: the high potential intellectual (HIP) and high potential emotional (HEP). Nevertheless, the potential refers to the idea of resources. This is therefore a person with more resources. I don't know you, but I don't feel especially smarter (intellectually as emotionally) than others.
Speaking of high potential seems to me pretentious limit. Again, we don't play who has the biggest. And then, since I have this high potential, do I have to do something "great" in my life? Do I have to use my intellectual and emotional "great resources," otherwise they would be wasted?
No, this high-potential term is not entirely suitable for me.
The gifted
A gifted person also means a person who has high cognitive abilities. In fact, the gifted and the high potential are... the same person. Only, since the research on the subject is not complete, everyone goes there with their own word to try to define it.
Surprised means "more gifted", understood more gifted other. We're going back to our history of great resources. If I am more gifted than my comrades, do I have to use this gift (the fact of being gifted) to avoid ruining it? In any case, I don't feel any better than the others. DifferentYes, but not more gifted.
This expression of gifted adult or gifted person is therefore still not suitable for me.
Early
Early childhood often refers to a child (except in certain "sports" activities, but this is not the subject of this site). We're talking aboutEarly childhood, or even intellectually early childhood (EIP).
When it applies to young people, I can understand it. Indeed, the early child will often discover things before his comrades. So he's Early, or in advance. But once adulthood arrives, this advance is lost because others catch up. And then, can we talk about early adulthood? I don't think so, it seems strange to me...
Moreover, even in children it is difficult to talk about precocity. In my case, I've never discovered anything before. I wasn't the little genius in class who knows everything before the teachers explained it. It may be said that I was very mature for my age and in advance of some reflections, but I had no precocity at school.
Atypical profile
An atypical profile, or an atypical person, is less frequently used in literature. Nevertheless, he sometimes remains present. Reference is made here to a person who is not typical, who is not "in the norm" and therefore not normal. But I consider us quite normal people. Different people, but normal. Basically, what is normality?
And then the term "atypical" can be used on many other things. A child who chooses to take an interest in crossbow shooting and mattresses will, you will agree, have atypical interests and therefore an unusual profile. However, it cannot be concluded that his cognitive functioning is different.
I also allow myself to add that neurotypical expression exists, and refers to people who are not high potentials (or gifted, or others).
The Zebra Person
The Zebra Person (or personality zebra) is a high potential, a gifted, an (ex) early child, etc. It is the same person who has a different cognitive function (thus a functioning brain).
The term zebra was first used by the psychologist Jeanne-Siaud Facchin. It explains this by the fact that the zebra is the only equidae that man has failed to domesticate. In the savannah, it is easily noticed with its stripes. But, paradoxically, it is the same scratches that allow him to go unnoticed and melt into the mass. The zebra is different while being the same. So being a zebra, or having a zebra personality, is feeling different while melting into the mass. It's having a different way of thinking and reacting.
I don't know about you, but I'm talking. There is no longer this notion of false superiority that one had with the high potential or the gifted, nor advance with the early. Here we really focus on the difference which, paradoxically, also allows us to make ourselves invisible.
* with the horse of Przewalski
Laminaries and complexes
Laminar and complex people are two subsets of zebra people. In fact, the difference is discovered (or rather is true, because there may be some clues upstream) during the IQ test results. One intellectual quotient test consists of several small tests (called subtests). Your overall result is therefore composed, in reality, of several scores obtained at these subtests. If these different scores are generally homogeneous (or homogeneous results), then we speak of person/minor brain. Otherwise, with heterogeneous results, we speak of complex person/brain.
Even if the terms exist, I find that when we start on the subject, it is not especially necessary to know them. In my experience, the border between laminar and complex people is rather permeable.
Conclusion: high potential, zebra, gifted, etc.: no difference!
You will understand, all these expressions refer to the same person. That's why sometimes you can find "mixes" between them: a gifted zebra, an atypical gifted zebra, a laminar zebra, etc. It is also for the same reason (and to avoid too heavy repetitions) that, during your reading on this site, I will alternate between these different expressions. Even if, as we have seen, I am not necessarily a fan of some, they have the merit of existing and, I am convinced, will speak better to some of you than to me.
